Wildlife

The Burren region is internationally famous for its landscape and flora. A visit to the Burren during the summer months will leave a person amazed by the colourful diversity of flowering plants living together within the one ecosystem. Arctic-alpine plants living side by side with Mediterranean plants, calcicole (lime-loving) and calcifuge (acid-loving) plants growing adjacent to one another and woodland plants growing out in the open with not a tree nearby to provide shade from the sun. Also found here are certain species which, although rare elsewhere, are abundant in the Burren. Even more amazingly they all survive in a land that appears to be composed entirely of rock.

We must not forget the enormous influence of the farming community in the region. Through their farming techniques, they have managed the land in such a way as to preserve the unusual flora and habitats that remain today. Not only have these habitats been preserved by the method of management in the region, they have been enhanced and owe their existence to the farming community.

The Burren covers 1% of the land surface of Ireland and is approximately 350 km² in size. Most of the Burren is designated a Special Area of Conservation to protect this extremely unusual habitat.